Man convicted in second rape case; murder trial to follow

Victim was attacked on Veirs Mill Road

A Washington, D.C., man who will be tried later this month in the murder of a Silver Spring man and his 9-year-old daughter was convicted July 2 in the rape of a 20-year-old college student in 2002.

This was the second rape conviction against Anthony Quintin Kelly, 44, who was found guilty last month of first-degree rape, first-degree assault and the use of a handgun in commission of a crime of violence in connection with the 2002 rape of a 61-year-old woman.

Kelly, who has been defending himself in the rape trials, faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment in the most recent conviction. He will be sentenced following the last Montgomery County trial, where he will face charges that he killed 47-year-old George Russell and his daughter Erika Smith in their Montgomery Hills home. That trial is expected to begin July 28.

It took a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury a few hours to find Kelly guilty of first-degree rape, said Seth Zucker, a spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County. The trial lasted three days.

Kelly attacked the victim, a 20-year-old college student, on June 20, 2002, after asking her for directions in his white Cadillac while she was walking along Veirs Mill Road trying to catch a bus, according to a news release from the State’s Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County. Kelly came up behind the victim with a knife, threatened her, and forced her into the back of his car, the release said.

Kelly then drove her into a wooded area, where he raped her and then told her to count to 60 before getting up. The victim was able to stop the driver of a passing car, which took her to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital where a DNA sample was taken, the release said.

In December of that year, Kelly was arrested after fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle. A DNA sample was then taken from Kelly, which matched that of the sample taken from the victim. A DNA sample taken from the 61-year-old woman Kelly was also found guilty of raping also matched Kelly’s DNA.

This is the second of three trials in Montgomery County involving Kelly after a 2004 finding by psychiatrists at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a psychiatric hospital where Kelly was being held, that said Kelly was unfit to stand trial. Judge Thompson ordered that Kelly remained at the hospital.

In December 2007, doctors at Perkins reevaluated Kelly and found that he was competent to stand trial. Competency is based on a defendant’s understanding of the charges, and whether he or she is able to assist in the defenses.

Following the conclusion of his trial for double murder later this month, Kelly will be tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was indicted in September 2003 in the murder of Katie Lynn Hill, a 36-year-old Seattle tourist found dead on Aug. 9, 2002, two blocks from the Takoma Metro Station in Takoma, D.C. Kelly will also face armed robbery charges in that case.

In addition to two counts of murder, Kelly will face one count of first-degree burglary, one count of burglary in the second degree, two counts of the use of a handgun in a crime of violence and one count of theft under $500 in his final Montgomery County case later this month.